Deathly Hallows- Part 1 (Spoiler Free)

Gosh, it's been a crazy weekend... can't believe it's taken me this long to do my movie review! Work, my back, and Sirius's injury (more on that later) took precedence. Oh well, here we go!

My sister-in-law and I went to the midnight showing last week and stood/sat in line for almost 5 hours. Thanks Tiff for keeping me company! ;) Was it worth the wait? HECK YEAH! Deathly Hallows (part 1) was absolutely, unequivocally, refreakingdiculously AMAZING!!! Every movie has, as expected, continued to get darker and scarier and this one was no exception. For me though, it had a different feel to it, definitely not a "kiddie" movie anymore... and not just because of the scary parts. I won't get scene specific here, but I cried, and laughed, and cried some more... It was intense, tender at times, and of course full of intermittent comic relief delivered superbly by the Grint and the Phelps twins!

Some things were added that weren't in the book and other things were left out... of course this happens in all book to movie adaptations, so it wasn't a huge deal for me. At times it bugged a bit, but it wasn't anything plot-altering. Many critics are harping on how "slow" it gets during the middle, as the trio wanders. HELLO, newsflash: That's how JK Rowling wrote it! I believe her intention was for us, as readers, to feel some of that sense of desperation and impatience alongside HarRonMione. I believe the movie accomplished just that. I wasn't bothered by it one bit. In fact, I felt that the wandering was rather quick and not as drawn out as in the book... but again, this is a movie and there are time constraints and all that mojo so oh well.
All in all, I give this movie 2 thumbs up and a great big smile! I LOVED it and cannot wait until next year to see the conclusion of this most beloved series! 

So... now its your turn? What did you think? CAUTION: comments may not be spoiler free!

T minus 9 days!!!

We're down to single digits people!!! WOOHOO!!!

And here, for your Voldy Moldy hating pleasure...

Pottertastic!

Hmmm... can we guess which one is Fleur? ;)

Finally, the full length trailer (for Part 1) is here! I'm so excited!!! November can't come quick enough! Enjoy!



AWE-SOME!

Eclipse Review! (possible spoilers, beware)

Got home at 3am, didn't sleep much, and am up studying but I thought I'd take a break to do my shpiel. Overall impression: SO good! Best of the three for sure! Gonna go see it again tomorrow with another buddy, hopefully the screams will have died down a bit and I can hear more dialogue this time... that's always hard at the midnight showings, heehee.

Without getting too spoilery, this is what stuck out the most to me:

* Very few/minor deviations from the book! Much was condensed, of course, but nothing plot-altering was done, thank goodness!

* Lots and lots of dialogue straight from the book, some even from BD.

* Sparkle effect was very subtle and better done than in previous movies.

* More of the soundtrack made it into this movie than any of the previous ones. Some worked, some... not so much, in my opinion.

* I prefer the " marble consistency" of the vamps in New Moon to the "crystal consistency" in
this one... fighting scenes really bring out the difference.

* Speaking of fighting scenes, I was unprepared for how graphic (albeit non-bloody) they were.
No subtlety there... but then again, I've got a low tolerance for the cringe- factor.

* Lots of tongue-in-cheek/movie poking fun at itself moments :)

Directing/Production technicalities aside, most memorable moments:

* Loved all the Bella/Charlie scenes. Perfectly awkward/funny/tender! The sex-talk scene was
my favorite, although graduation made me tear up ;)

* Rosalie/Jasper flashbacks were awesome!!! Quillute legends were cool as well.

* Loved the adorable Alice/Jasper stuff they threw in; many "awwwww" moments!

* Lots of the Bree Tanner back story made it in which helped tremendously.

* Riley and (new) Victoria were pretty cool. Riley stole the show though, awesome actor!

* Jacob does a really good job at making you feel so bad for him... I totally hated him in the books
but even my cold heart-strings felt a few tugs :(

* Tent scene was done very well, they kept the most crucial of the book's dialogue.

* Ahh, the much anticipated big bed/chastity & virtue talk/official marriage proposal scene:
It didn't deviate much from the book, if that tells you something. My favorite part was the end,
when he does the actual proposal and she says yes. Absolute raw/unguarded joy! I almost
forgot myself and jumped out of my seat clapping... Probably will go down as a fan favorite!


And that's that folks! I'm SO excited to see it again tomorrow, its always better the second time around because you can take more in. Hopefully the crowd won't be as rowdy. Yeah... we'll see about that ;)

I may regret this tomorrow...

... oh, but what a way to go!!!

I work tomorrow (afternoon) and have my 2nd Micro test of the week Thursday but guess what I am doing tonight? Oh yeah baby... ECLIPSE!!!! Since we're just doing the midnight release this time, and not the triple feature, we (my friends and I, Ben is not coming tonight) will have to do the never-ending waiting in line thing... *sigh* Good thing I have a gazillion terms/essay topics to memorize!

Okiedokie, gotta eat and head off to the theater, hopefully I can get a coherent movie review up tomorrow!

What was I thinking?!?!?

So I figured I'd take Micro over the summer and just get it out of the way before starting clinicals. Its a 5 credit class so its a doozey, even in a regular 16 week semester. I chose to do it in 8 weeks. I figured it would be no sweat after killing my Chem class (which I was terrified of!) NOT SO. Two days into it (and 2 quizzes later, with our first test coming up on Monday) I'm starting to wonder if I'll survive this summer. If I weren't working it would be no problem, but I'm at the hospital 4 days this week and at school the other 3. When will I study and get my hw done? Hmmmm.... good question. Somethings gonna have to give and I think it will have to be work. However, schedules are made for the month so I'm stuck like this until July. Baptist will not be seeing as much of me after June though... I've kept a 4.0 for the past 4 semesters, this class will NOT mess that up for me!!! ARGH!

I'm tackling this like I did cross country, small reachable goals. Survive one week at a time. Since we're pretty much having a test and 2-3 quizzes/week that's quite enough for me. I also am going to focus on my reward for surviving the first half of this ordeal. Guess what happens June 30th, exactly 1 month before the last day of term? Oh yeah baby, Eclipse time!!!

Speaking of, found another clip today and this one is about the wolf pack and introduces Leah a bit. She's such a pill...I think Julia Jones will do a fantastic job!



Anyway, Micro's calling, eeek!

Bool Review: Bree Tanner (Caution: possible spoilers?)

I normally stay away from books that have a sad ending (and anyone that's read Eclipse knows that Bree Tanner's ultimate fate is not a happy one, so I don't consider this a spoiler) but I just had to make an exception for this one. Eclipse has always been my very favorite of the Twilight Saga for many reasons, but one of them is my fascination with " the newborns." The info Stephenie Meyer gives us about them (in the series) is almost like a tease and I always wondered what it would be like, from their perspective. When I found out that she had written a short novel based on a newborn's experience I was thrilled! Finally, first hand accounts of what it was like to be these crazy, savage beings; a complete departure from the Cullen world.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner essentially fills in all the gaps in Eclipse regarding Victoria's "newborn army" and her plans for revenge on the Cullens, namely Edward. All the how's and why's are answered which is satisfying since even at the end of Eclipse, after all was resolved, you were still left wondering how Victoria and Riley accomplished what they had. Basically, this ties up a lot of loose ends and introduces you to some really neat characters that we never knew existed, but whom were nevertheless vital to how everything played out in the end.

Sadly, Bree's story is that of a tragic hero. She is just one of the many victims. The Cullen's have her to thank for some vital info obtained in those last moments before her ultimate demise. That last scene takes on a whole new meaning when seen through someone other than Bella's eyes. I expect that some of what we see in Eclipse will make a lot more sense now that we have this back story. For me, my dislike of the Volturi (especially Jane and her cronies) increased tenfold. Too bad things turned out the way they did... I think Bree (and perhaps two of her friends ) would have made loyal additions to the Cullen fam.

Here is a short featurette about Bree Tanner and her role in Eclipse.

New Muse Video!!!

Hooray!!! Here is Muse's new song for the Eclipse soundtrack:
Neutron Star Collision(Love Is Forever)

Muse - New Music - More Music Videos

Love love LOVE the song!!! Lyrics here. It fits well with the doom and gloom circumstances surrounding the plot and Bella's choice in the end. No spoiler scenes to speak of, pretty much stuff we've already seen. Enjoy:)


Aaaaaaaaand because I just couldn't resist... a snippet of one of my favorite scenes in the book. I much prefer Edward's quiet fury/threats (in the book) to the movie Edward's sort of manic tantrum. Plus, Bella(and her broken hand, heehee) is supposed to not care if Edward rips Jacob in two, not stand between them! *Sigh* They always mess with stuff. However, gotta love Charlie! I wonder if they'll leave in his, "Good for you kid!" line... that would be classic. I guess we shall see... Anyway, here it is.



Jacob is a punk... Boo!Hiss!

Final Eclipse Trailer

Yay! So excited!!! I was a bit concerned about the 3D/IMAX side of things but it's going to make the wolf pack scenes CRAZY!!!

Go puppies, go!!! :)
(for the record, the wolves are killing the bad (newborn) vamps, NOT regular people!)

Come on June 3oth...

Yay!

Hooray for The Hunger Games, they're finally starting to talk up the movie!!!

It's not much...

but it's something! It's grainy too, but oh wells... I'm excited to see something coming out! Hopefully the next one will be meatier.
Ron getting splinched sure looks painful... yikes!

Refreakindiculously Fantabulous... Part 2!

(One of my favorite scenes)

Ok, so now that I'm rested and refreshed I can do this properly!

Last night was SO much fun! Ben and I went with one of my friends from work and her hubby. We saw Twilight at 9 and then stayed in the same theater for New Moon at midnight. I'm so glad we did the double movie thing because when we got there at 8:15 the line to get into the theater for the midnight showing of NM was all the way outside. Our theater is on the bottom floor of a big mall, so it spanned from one end of the mall to the other, up the stairs and then across the whole mall again and out the front entrances. Absolute pandemonium... again, SO glad we did the 2 movie thing because we just got to bi-pass the ginormous line and walk straight into the theater and to our seats. Phew!

Now, the movie: No worries, I'll keep it very general, sans spoilers!

W-O-W... Total night and day difference from Twilight. A gazillion trillion quintillion times better! I was afraid for this one because so much of Bella's anguish (central to the plot-line) is in her head so I wasn't sure how it was going to translate to the screen... especially the "October... November... December...January" part. It was absolutely perfect! They did such a great job at staying SO true to the book! Scene after scene I was surprised by all the stuff I thought they'd leave out but they didn't. The dialogue was word for word in about 90% of the movie, with the occasional funnies from some characters. Oh! Can I just say that Alice rocks!!!! By far some of the funniest stuff comes from her. Charlie steals the show again as well. Oh it was just all sorts of wonderful! Even Jacob, whom I tend to just barely tolerate (albeit grudgingly) wormed his way into my heart this time. Oh and Aro... WOW, absolutely spot on!

There were a few things that were odd and didn't work for me. Alice's wardrobe for one... um, what was that? Also her vision that she shows Aro to convince him that Bella will be turned. THAT was hilarious, even though it wasn't supposed to be... again, the wardrobe... and the frolicking... heehee. I have to say though, Sparkly Bella made me really excited for Breaking Dawn, she will be breathtaking! (Well, as long as they don't dress her in that stupid little frock she had on! I'd post a picture but it's funnier to experience it for yourself!) Also, Bella's screams during the nightmares... uh, she sounds more like a pig being slaughtered than anything else. :P

While there were just a tiny few deviations from the book and a couple of raised eyebrow moments, none of them were all that crazy, and they all flowed together with everything else just fine. I normally get hung up on those, but it's so minor this time that I'm cool with it. Now I need to figure out when I'm going to go see it again! Ben won't come along this time though, lol. Poor guy, what a trooper!

Refreakindiculously Fantabulous!!!!

Just got home, still in shock! Gotta get to bed, more to come tomorrow... or I guess that would be later on today. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, it was soooooooooooooooooooo GREAT!!!!

Over and out!

The Host movie!!!

SM just announced today on her website that her book The Host will be turned into a movie!!! YAY! I'm so excited about that, it was an incredible book! More info here.

WOOT!